Am I the only one who feels sort of ripped off when it comes to being so hyper-vigilant about what I let my kids watch when they were little? Because as soon as my oldest started kindergarten last fall, he came home saying and doing at least half the stuff I've tried so hard to avoid in the past. Public school for the win! It apparently corrupts faster than Sponge Bob!
ETA - I'm not literally saying that Sponge Bob corrupts. Just making the point that all the stuff I haven't liked in certain shows and wouldn't let my kids watch for so long was learned from other kids in, like, one recess. So I'm not sure why I bothered.
Re: S/O Inappropriate TV - especially if your kid is school aged
So I'm probably not qualified for this question
C 7.16.2008 | L 11.12.2010 | A 3.18.2013
I don't allow it because of the potty humor.
This past January, we took the boys to McDonalds (yikes!...haha) for pancakes after DS1's first BBall game. While DH was ordering, the boys and I got a table. There was another boy there who had been on the opposing team and he and DS1 recoGnized one another and wanted to sit at tables next to each other. Our McDonalds has TVs and Sponge Bob was on. The other boy said, "I'm not allowed to watch that! ". Ds1 said, "me either!" Then the two of them were plotting how to get it turned off since it wasn't allowed.
I thought it was a pretty funny scenario. Rather than be upset, they were joining forces to turn it off.
However , last week DS1 was doing his homework, and he had to fill out a fiction chart over a book he read called Little Bat. He wrote Little But ( on purpose) and laughed hysterically because he wrote but. I didn't have the heart to tell him he needed to add a T...
I don't know if I necessarily buy into this line of thinking. I grew up with a parent who smoked, yelled and cussed a lot. He always said "do as I say, not as I do". Yeah, I was the kid sneaking cigarettes at 11, cussing all the time (though I was smart enough not to get caught) and was a yeller until I made a very conscious decision to ditch the habit because I wanted my kids to handle their emotions in better ways. I think kids learn more from what they see vs what they are told by their parents so I don't want to normalize bad behavior and language. I realize all bets are off once they're school age (and heck I'm already learning this at preschool with ds) but I'd really like to give them as good a start as possible.
Ha! No, but I know what you are talking about! I bet he did love it!!
We didn't let our kids watch it that young either. They do now, but it is no worse than what they hear at school. I absolutely controlled more of what they watched when they were younger, now they get it all at school anyway. I also don't consider potty humor bad.
Well of course nothing is true across the board 100% of the time but there's certainly the correlation. Hence why people who were spanked as kids statistically are much more likely to spank their own kids, people who grow up with obese parents are much more likely to be obese adults, etc. History tends to repeat itself.
I don't know--I feel like television is very powerful and motivating for kids and if what they're viewing is normalizing using mean language to peers that can carry over to real life. It just seems like an unnecessary risk especially with the much younger crowd where there's such a large variety of programming more positive.
DS 3.12.08
DD 7.11.09
DD 8.01.13
DS 3.12.08
DD 7.11.09
DD 8.01.13
Walter the Farting Dog?? I so need to get that book for SFIL....they call him Walter (not his name....I don't get it either) and, well, he farts a lot. :-p